He doesn’t, Butterfly says, and she wants to send him a letter. This comes as a bit of a shock to Sharpless, and he asks if Pinkerton knows of his son. She gets upset and brings out her blond-haired, blue-eyed son. Sharpless tries to convince her of the reality of the situation in as gentle a manner as possible. Butterfly gets overexcited at the idea of his return. Sharpless returns to the letter, in which Pinkerton tries to prepare Butterfly for his return, including the fact that he has remarried. He dispels her fears, and the act closes as they leave to consummate their marriage.Īna María Martínez as Butterfly, Houston Grand Opera He describes her as a butterfly, and she worries because she has heard they pin butterfly’s wings to tables in the West. Pinkerton consoles Butterfly, and the two get entirely mushy for several minutes. We now move into epic love duet mode with “Bimba, Bimba, non piangere”, which takes us to the interval. Pinkerton tries to protect her, and in the process, all the rest of the relatives turn on her, leaving with few good words said. He has learned of her conversion and curses her for it. The celebrations don’t last long before Butterfly’s uncle, the Bonze, storms in and starts hurling insults. The wedding begins and ends expeditiously, and Sharpless, offering one final warning to Pinkerton about Butterfly’s love, leaves the party. Goro tells him it contains the dagger sent to her father from the Mikado to commit seppuku (a rather nasty form of suicide meant to maintain one’s honour). Just before the wedding, Butterfly tells Pinkerton that she has converted to Christianity for him and shows him some of her most important possessions, including a box whose contents she will not reveal. Pinkerton delivers yet more crass lines about how brief he is expecting the marriage to be, whilst Butterfly professes to her family how deeply she is in love. The relatives all arrive, and amongst much wittering, it becomes clear there is some serious friction.

The metropolitan opera madama butterfly